Santa Sandwiches

4 more days until Christmas and my kids are already so excited!
I packed them Santa Claus lunches today after they have been singing "Santa Claus is Coming To Town..." for days now :)

We packed Santa Grilled cheese sandwiches in our Easylunchboxes today with orange slices, popcorn and a Trader Joe's dye-free candy cane cookie and one mini chocolate Santa Claus! They are also bringing ice water and a drinkable yogurt.

More Santa Sandwiches but this time with lettuce, mustard and chicken. The sides are the same: oranges with a mini Santa chocolate, popcorn and a Trader Joe's Cookie :) 

I also packed some more of our Christmas Lunchbox Love notes!

Today is the last day of school before Winter Break so from my family to yours:

Holiday Lunches

My kids loved that I hid little Santa chocolates in their lunches yesterday, so I did it again today. It seems the little joys are sometimes the most important ones and the ones they remember :)

For my oldest I packed apples, popcorn, Wasa Crackerbread and ham and cheese on the side so he can make his own sandwiches. He also brought yogurt and ice water. I added a Lunchbox Love note as well since my kids love finding them and telling me after school what they said! What a conversation starter!

For my youngest I packed present shaped sandwiches, apples, popcorn, ice water and yogurt and of course a small Santa chocolate! There is a Lunchbox Love note in his lunch as well and if he cannot read it he will bring it home and we read it together :)

My second grader has present shaped sandwiches as well as apples and popcorn but I snuck in a special German Vanilla cookie as well since I knew he would love finding something special in his lunchbox. Besides having ice water and yogurt he also has a Lunchbox Love note. I love sending them and being able to talk about them after the kids get out of school. Plus, after last week it seems any love we can add to our kids' every day life is a gift in itself.

I had fun adding some sweets this week and even though I try to feed my kids very healthy foods it  was fun adding some sweets to their lunchboxes and see their excited faces after school!

For all those of you that have not tried the spring loaded cookie stamps on bread yet: It is fun, easy and worth it! They come out great and I will look for more shapes as the holidays end and the new year begins. I found these at my local Target. 

7 Days until Christmas

My Kids have started the last week before Christmas Countdown and it was time for some more Christmas themed lunches!

We packed a chicken cold cut and lettuce sandwich Christmas tree, a Gingerbread family and strawberries. Can you spy the little Santa chocolate I hid? We also packed ice water and a drinkable yogurt.

7 more days until Christmas - the kids are so excited!

. 

This is a ham and cheese grilled cheese on a English muffin with pretzels and strawberries. There is also a babybel cheese with a Christmas Tree cut out and a mini Santa chocolate :)

Last but not least, Candy Cane sandwiches decorated with organic fruit leather, candy cane pretzels and more strawberries. A little Santa chocolate is hidden in this lunch as well :)

With Love

This morning was hard. I sent my children to school with lots of hugs & kisses and I love you's.
And I am thinking of those who wish they could do the same.

I packed them a special snack in our LunchBot Trio with star shaped pretzels a mini chocolate snowman, half an apple with a peace dove cut out and some German Lebkuchen. I also added an "I love you" Lunchbox Love note.

Now I am just counting down the minutes until they are home today.

Quick Toddler Snack

We have been so busy this week I never got to post any of the lunches.
Here at least a quick snack from today for a very tired toddler:

This quick snack contains snowflake crackers, cheese and honey ham cut with a small star shaped cookie cutter and some mini hot dogs with peppers. I gently heated the hot dogs since she had the snack at home but they are equally yummy cold :)

Hoping you are enjoying a calm Holiday Season!

The "No Peanut Butter" Challenge Round Up

Our week of " No Peanut Butter" was a great success for us and I wanted to share the whole week with you in one Round Up post. Thank you to Kelly Lester for the Peanut Butter Graphic!

Day 1: Soup and Sandwich

Day 2: Egg Sandwiches

Day 3: Quesadillas

Day 4: Turkey Quacamole Wrap

Day 5: Ham & Cucumber Sandwich Pockets

Day 6: Belgian Waffles

What a great week!

Day 6: Belgian Waffles for Lunch

Today is our last day of the "No Peanut Butter" Challenge and I have to say that it was indeed challenging but the kids and I also had a lot of fun discovering foods they like and working together as a team on deciding what's for lunch. I definitely will continue to have them involved in their lunch packing even if occasionally a peanut butter sandwich sneeks back in :)

But, without further ado, here is our lunch from today:

We packed grapes and blueberries, a clementine and waffles with syrup. Today they also brought Orange juice to drink and a yogurt for lunch to complete the breakfast for lunch. 

Very simple but perfect for a Friday Lunch!

Lunch is packed in our favorite Easylunchboxes with an Easylunchboxes Mini Dipper to hold the syrup and we also added a fun Lunchbox Love Note to make their day brighter.

Have a wonderful Weekend!

Holiday Ho Ho Hop

Today is a special morning in Germany. Nikolaustag!
Children put their shoes out by the door the night of December 5th in the hopes St. Nick will fill them with candy and chocolate coins. I love Nikolaustag and since I am German we celebrate it each year and of course my kids put out their shoes last night:

We also left out some carrots for the donkey that Nikolaus rides on and it seems my kids were good this year!

Bento Bloggers and Friends is having a Ho Ho Hop today and  I made a special Nikolaus Lunch in honor of Nikolaustag!

We packed our yubo with a ham and cucumber boot sandwich filled with some small chocolates, Christmas tree shaped pretzels, yogurt with dye free chocolate sprinkles to make a Christmas Tree and some penguin crackers with a Nikolaus decoration.

And now hop over to my friend Keeley to see what she packed for today's Ho Ho Hop!

Day 5: Ham & Cucumber Sandwich Pockets

Happy Thursday! It is Day 5 of our Challenge and today we packed Ham and Cucumber sandwiches, yum!

The kids are still loving this week and are trying to come up with alternatives!

Since today is Nikolaus Day in Germany and Nikolaus came to us, too, we packed a Nikolaus lunch for today's challenge!

We packed penguin crackers, candy cane shaped pretzels, small glazed gingerbread and a sandwich pocket filled with ham and cucumbers in our Easylunchboxes. We also added two mini chocolates since it is a special day! We packed as always ice water and a yogurt to make this lunch complete.

Day 4: Turkey Guacamole Wrap

I have to admit that today it was very hard not to grab for the jar of peanut butter and just make PBJs. We had a short night and one of my kids woke up sick.

But, we were strong and made some yummy Turkey Guacamole Wraps for today:

We packed apple sauce, pretzels and a Turkey and Guacamole wrap with salad. I also found a cute Lunchbox Love note to add and as always the kids packed ice water and yogurt as well. And I snuck in a small snowman chocolate ;)

Happy Wednesday!

Day 3: Quesadillas

My kids asked for quesadillas for lunch today and I was happy to make them since they are fast and easy!

So here are our lunches from today:

I packed two slices of cheese quesadilla with a small gingerbread man quesadilla on top. I decorated the gingerbread man with cheese but it melted too fast so I added more cheese cut outs to make them stand out more. Also packed are pretzel rings and popcorn which reminded us of Christmas Tree decorations :) As always the kids also packed ice water and yogurt drinks.

I also made a Christmas tree quesadilla lunch. It has four quesadilla slices and the top slice is decorated with cheese stars and a star cupcake topper. They also have sour cream and salsa in Mini Dippers packed separately and popcorn and pretzel rings as well as ice water and yogurt drinks.

My oldest asked for a simple lunch and so he got 4 slices of quesadilla, pretzels, salsa, sour cream and a yogurt (not pictured). Like the others he also has ice water and in addition and small container with popcorn since he wanted the dip in his EasyLunchbox :)

Happy Tuesday!
And if you love the Elf on the Shelf stop by my Ultimate Elf on the Shelf Link Party!

Ultimate Elf on the Shelf Link Party

Welcome to the Ultimate Elf on the Shelf Link Party. This is THE place to find great Elf on the Shelf ideas. Visit & link all month long. This party is co-hosted by Diana Rambles, MamaBelly, & BentoLunch.net.

Rules:
1. Follow the co-hosts. Diana Rambles, MamaBelly, & BentoLunch.net. GFC and/or other accounts.
2. Follow the Ultimate Elf on the Shelf Board on Pinterest.
3. Post the Ultimate Elf on the Shelf Link Party button somewhere on your blog.
4. Only link your own Elf on the Shelf related posts. No limit to how many you post.
5. Visit other participants, leave comments, pin from their blogs, and have fun!

Only bloggers who follow steps 1-3 will be considered for blog, Pinterest, Twitter, or Facebook features. By linking up to this party you give permission for us to feature your post and all readers to pin on Pinterest. The co-hosts reserve the right to delete any links that do not follow the rules. Keep an eye out on for features to be posted by one of the co-hosts on Sundays through Christmas!

Please spread the word about this link party by Tweeting! 


<center> <a href="http://www.mamabelly.com/2012/12/ultimate-elf-on-shelf-link-party.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Ultimate Elf on the Shelf Link Party" src="http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag42/luncheswithlove/elf-on-shelf-ultimate-link-party.png"/></a></center>

The Bento Elf {Christopher's Adventures}

Look who got into my bento stash: Christopher!
And he made himself a bento snack :)

Mini cucumber hearts, three yogurt raisins and two mini bunny chocolate sandwiches with sprinkle decorations.

Pretty good for an elf. Don't you think?